Simon, Amoo dropped as CAF releases final shortlist for menâ€™s 2022 Awards

By OLAWALE ALABI

Super Eagles’ duo of Moses Simon and Akinkunmi Amoo failed to make the final list of nominees for the men’s categories of the CAF Awards 2022.

France-based Simon who plays for FC Nantes and Amoo of Danish side FC Copenhagen were the only Nigerians to make the first list.

The list was released by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) on June 30.

But when the final list came out on Monday, the two players were not part of the elite African performers in the last few months who made the top list.

Earlier, Simon was listed for the Player of the Year award, while Amoo was listed for the Young Player of the Year award.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CAF Awards 2022 will be held in Rabat, Morocco on July 21.

However, the final list has reigning CAF African Player of the Year Sadio Mane (Senegal and Bayern Munich), amongst others.

There are also former winner Riyad Mahrez (Algeria and Manchester City) and Mohamed Salah (Egypt and Liverpool).

One of the highly-contested categories is that of the CAF Coach of the Year, where Aliou Cisse, Pitso Mosimane, Carlos Queiroz, Tom Saintfiet and Walid Regragui have made the final cut.

The Player of the Year and Interclub Player of the Year categories have 10 nominees each.

The Young Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, National Team of the Year and Club of the Year categories have five nominees each.

The winners of each category will be decided by a voting panel which will include CAF Technical Committee members, and selected media professionals.

The panel will also have Head Coaches and Captains of Member-Associations and clubs involved at the group stage of the Interclub competitions for the 2021/22 season.

The women’s categories final shortlist will be announced in due course.

Full List of Nominees (in alphabetical order by Member-Association):

Player of the Year (Men)

Riyad Mahrez (Algeria and Manchester City)

Toko Ekambi (Cameroon and Olympique Lyonnais)

Vincent Aboubacar (Cameroon and Al Nassr)

Sebastien Haller (Cote d’Ivoire and Borussia Dortmund)

Mohamed Salah (Egypt and Liverpool)

Naby Keita (Guinea and Liverpool)

Achraf Hakimi (Morocco and Paris Saint-Germain)

Edouard Mendy (Senegal and Chelsea)

Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal and Napoli)